Fuse
by gaggers
Summary: The hunter girl agrees to help Shino, a constantly hunted fuse.
1. Chapter 1

The peace and quiet one receives from solitude is all lost in the midst of a motley crowd of fish merchants, prostitutes, and artisans. Looking up at the cherry blossom tree in earnest I find myself drifting into a stream of peonies, and in between their clustered petals I see a fox mask drifting swiftly away from me. Absent mindedly I reach out my hands and grasp out…dropping my gun causing it to misfire into a high bun of an old sweet merchant now momentarily paralyzed from shock with two odangos in her hands. "Eh sorry…" I nervously scoot back from the tree. The poor lady didn't notice me run off to the west of her stall.

Running until I lost breathe, a stand of decapitated animals greets me. Just like the old sweet merchant I stand, momentarily paralyzed. True, I'm a hunter but no animal should be displayed in such a horrific manner. For they too have souls. Overcoming my shock I raise my voice in protest, "Who is doing this?!" A crowd of men turn away from the display then dart their eyes toward me. A tall dark man with green hair steps up with a derisive smirk. "Oh, and what if it was me?" And with a quick swipe, he took up one victim by the mane and swung it around, sloshing blood on my face.

In disgust, I run off hearing their raucous laughter behind me. Dodging the brightly colored shop signs is a man in a fox mask, the same fox mask I saw in my daydream, dashing in front of me. I turn my head towards the back, and see a group of shabbily dressed ruffians swinging their swords with greed. "CHARGGGEEE" they cry out in unison while pressing on, pushing me towards the doorstep of an old lady's broom shop. "tsk tsk" she mutters while sweeping off the dirt on my nose. I ignore her awkward gaze to look onwards. The group including the fox mask stole into the pockets of the merchant town. Who knows in which alleyway they are facing off now?

From my stubborn nature I refuse to let this incident go. Being of a curious nature, I want to see the face behind the mask, and if a fuse, to take it as my own prey. It will be the pinnacle of my hunting career. With a goal now in mind, I dashed blindly into an alleyway between a yarn shop and a futon shop. Scanning my surroundings I see nothing but pieces of futon covered in dirt. I meet the end of the alleyway. Once I do a foot lands on my head. The sole of the foot digs into the bun of my hair. "YEOOWW" I cry out, nursing my head. A pair of feet cling on the pavement behind me, I now hear something dripping, and I touch the back of my bun and glance at my hand, its blood. Frightened I twirl to meet the one behind me, and I see a young man with hair as white as cigarette smoke, eyes as red as candy apples, and a kimono of a feminine shade of pink, but most importantly, he had a fox mask in his left hand covered in blood. There wasn't just blood on his mask, but also on the bottom half of his kimono.

I am afraid, but have a greater resolve to kill this monster. With shaky hands, the fingers of my right hand wrap around the gun handle with my thumb hovering over the trigger, as my left hand desperately tries to keep the gun leveled on the same plane as the monster's head. "Wait" he murmurs. I shoot. Opening my eyes I see his mask lying on the dirt floor. He's gone. I can't tell whether I'm disappointed or relieved, but without a chance to collect my thoughts a hand smacks me hard on the back of my chest knocking me out.


	2. Chapter 2

I wake up to the rustling of silk and a clinging of bells. An aroma of jasmine and germanium sweeps into the base of my nostrils. I hear clattering laughter from behind me. Sitting up, I notice my hands are painted with red. Is it blood? I sniff the palm of my hand only to smell an acrid odor. It really is just paint. So was everything I saw…an illusion? No, it can't be there's his face mask seated on the foot of the futon, but wasn't there blood on it? Confused, I clench a handful of hair from the back of my head.

An onslaught of chattering rouses me out of my muddled thoughts. "Is she still here?" "Yeah, what is it a problem?" A brawny man with pink lips is leaning over the shop counter decked with pieces of red, purple, and green silk. In his left hand were three receipts, and in his right a very long pipe. Across from him, leaning against the pillar of a tall hanger with a motley array of kimonos were hanging, is the same man I encountered the other day with the white hair. "Eh…if my customers figure out it won't be good for business ya'know?" "Don't worry, she'll probably escape from here before you know it."

Taking his advice, I hastily look for my gun and find it behind a row of silk robes hanging in a dusty wardrobe. I take one last furtive glance at my surroundings then leap out from the only window in the entire shop that happened to be in this room. It overlooked a river of tar. The moment I opened the window latch I hear the silver haired man shout "There she goes!"

I dart across the bridge, and crash into him. Within a split second my gun is snatched away from me. "Hey, I thought you would let me go!" Mr. Fox Mask waves the gun tauntingly over my head "I changed my mind. You see, I thought it over, and I have a proposition to make." "A proposition?" "Why, yes..." I glue my eyes onto his mask and nod my head. Still swinging my gun over my head, he starts off in a low voice, "Too many of my kind have been killed, and now I'm next in line. I've done pretty well avoiding death, but…It would be to me advantage if I had a sharpshooter like you as a partner." I furiously shake my head, "I refuse to kill humans, and they are not my prey. Only animals such as…" "Myself?" He scoffs. I take a good look at him, everything appears human, but if what those men showed me are his accomplices then he must be like them too. "I'm sorry, but you might become my next prey…" He sighs, "This just strengthens my resolve to NOT hand you back your gun…" My eyes widen and blood rushes to my cheeks. I puff out, "But you can't…It's my grandfather's…" "Then will you promise to JOIN me? I'm willing to pay you handsomely if money is what you want…" "Alright…, but I will only cause diversions .I refuse to murder humans." And from that day forward I was more or less of a decoy to a hunted animal.


	3. Chapter 3

Everything seemed to be moving so fast once I agreed to Mr. Fox Man's proposition. Every morning I would gingerly sneak out of my brother's shack to meet Mr. Fox Man on the Shimabara bridge. His white hair would flutter in the gentle breeze as he would hand me a map outlining the different routes within a certain city he planned on making his appearance. I tried to understand his reasoning behind making himself so conspicuous, but he brushed me off with a rough pat on my head. And so we marched on into town, him jauntily and myself warily. Once spotted we would break off. I would find myself in low places in between alleys while he would leap from the rooftops. Whenever shots were direct towards him I would find the culprit and shoot off the grip from his palm. This proved to be a very delicate operation, but with my superior gun-handling skills it proved to not be much of a challenge. One by one the two of us would drive these gangs away. Sometimes they would come back out of revenge other times they would no longer bother us out of fear of the "hunter-girl". Just like that, I found myself losing count of the days until Mr. Fox Man decided to take off his mask in public. Everyone was shocked to find a handsome face underneath. I remember that day clearly, we were standing in the middle of the town square. The simmering of tea, the shouts of cart-sellers, the giggling of old women huddled in a corner of a small tea shop, and whatever else you can imagine occuring in the center of town couldn't touch the both of us at that moment. "And now your payment" without hesitation Shino, no longer known as Mr. Fox Man, handed me a heavy bag of coins. My hands started to shake. From my apparent hesitation Shino asked me if I was alright. With a hand still shaking, I nodded my head but couldn't bring myself to look into his eyes. The chattering of the group of women and the simmering of the tea died out. The bustling town couldn't reach my ears. All I could do was stand at my spot waiting for Shino to snap me out of this paralysis. My heart felt as if it could shatter the moment I took the bag away from Shino's hands. "S-s-Shino..." I manage to stutter out. "What is it?" With a suddent jolt of the head I gaze into his eyes, and ask him "After this will we not be with each other again?" The simmering of tea and the cackles of the tiny group of women grew loud again blanketing us from those around. He pushed the bag into my pocket. "Stop talking nonsense." I grew red and became flustered at his response. He didn't wait for me to beat my fsts against his chest instead he drew me into his warm embrace. From then onwards we've been traveling from town to town, exploring alleyways, crawling into strange ditches, and running across bridges found in the strangest places. His company became worth more than any bounty laid out there.


End file.
